http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1034145/posts "'Network of terror' warning (Germany)"
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ^ | Dec. 5, 2003 | Michael Gavin
Posted on 12/04/2003 4:14:55 PM PST by FairOpinion
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Top investigator says arrest of alleged Islamist in Munich raises alarm bells
Germany's top-ranking police officer warned on Thursday that the arrest of a suspected Islamist radical in Munich pointed to the existence of a far-reaching “network of Islamist terror“ operating in Germany.
Ulrich Kersten, the president of the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation, or BKA, stressed however that he had no information that any attacks were being planned in this country.
Kersten said the man identified only as Mohammed L., a 29-year-old ethnic Kurd from Iraq arrested at the main Munich train station on Tuesday, had been in contact with a number of other suspected Islamists detained recently. Their apparent specialty, he said, was obtaining weapons and smuggling Islamists into Europe. The alleged Islamist came under scrutiny as part of the expanded investigations launched in Germany since Sept. 11, 2001, when a Hamburg-based cell of young foreign-born Islamists believed to be under the direction of Al Qaeda carried out the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Apart from immigration violations, criminal charges have materialized in only a few of the cases.
Kersten said investigations had revealed ample ties between Mohammed L. and Islamists abroad, but he declined to elaborate. “The threat is still there, and it cannot be foreseen that it will decline,“ said Kersten, adding, “All in all, I think we can talk about a network of Islamist terror.“
Kersten did not link Mohammed L. to Al Qaeda, but press reports in Munich said he was the suspected local leader of the Kurdish-dominated Ansar al-Islam group, which has been linked by some officials to Osama bin Laden's organization."